Summary: Ultrasound recordings of Gaelic speakers reveal how the tongue moves forward and backward to create distinctive speech sounds, offering new visual insight into Gaelic phonetics.
Source: Lancaster University
The first publicly available ultrasound recordings of Gaelic provide a unique, inside view of tongue shapes produced during speech.
A curated set of these recordings is now accessible in a dedicated section titled “Teangannan na Gàidhlig” (Gaelic Tongues).
Led by Lancaster University, a research team captured video recordings of participants’ tongues while they spoke both Gaelic and Western-Isles English. The goal was to observe how different tongue positions and movements generate various consonant sounds.
Using ultrasound imaging, the researchers obtained lateral profile views of the tongue in motion during natural speech, enabling direct comparison of internal articulatory configurations that are normally invisible to listeners and observers.
A selection of these ultrasound videos has been added to the Seeing Speech website, which hosts visual resources for speech sounds created by specialists in speech and language from the University of Glasgow and Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. The new Gaelic section presents full-speed and slow-motion recordings that highlight articulatory patterns for several Gaelic consonants.
Specifically, the recordings focus on Gaelic variants of the consonants written as ‘l’, ‘n’, and ‘r’. Gaelic displays an uncommon complexity for these sounds: there are three distinct types of ‘l’, three types of ‘n’, and three types of ‘r’ found in the language. The ultrasound material makes clear how speakers adjust tongue position—bringing the tongue forward or pulling it back—to produce these different phonetic variants.
The team responsible for the project was led by Dr Claire Nance of Lancaster University, with Sam Kirkham also contributing from Lancaster. Video production was carried out by Di Wang (Lancaster University) with additional support from Eleanor Lawson (Queen Margaret University). The Gaelic content was incorporated into the Seeing Speech site with collaboration from Eleanor Lawson and Jane Stuart-Smith (University of Glasgow), and technical assistance from Brian Aitken (University of Glasgow).
This research was supported financially by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account administered by Lancaster University, and benefited from the involvement of Marsaili MacLeod of the University of the Highlands and Islands. Community and media partners also assisted with data collection; the research team expressed thanks to BBC Alba, BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar for their help in facilitating recordings.
These ultrasound recordings are valuable for several reasons. They provide linguists and speech scientists with direct visual evidence of how Gaelic speakers shape their tongues for different consonant categories. Educators and learners of Gaelic can use the material to better understand the physical aspects of pronunciation that underlie audible differences. Additionally, the recordings serve as documentation of contemporary speech patterns in Gaelic and Western-Isles English, contributing to efforts to preserve and study regional language varieties.
Dr Claire Nance commented: “These recordings give a fascinating view inside the mouth while people are speaking. It’s really important to understand the details of Gaelic speech sounds so that we can support Gaelic learning and teaching and document the language. We would like to thank BBC Alba, BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, who have all helped us collect the data.”
About this neuroimaging and speech research news
Author: Anne Rothwell ([email protected])
Source: Lancaster University
Contact: Anne Rothwell – Lancaster University
Image: The image is in the public domain